Neighborhood of Hod Hasharon, Israel
Central synagogue of Magdiel
Magdiel
(
Hebrew
:
??????
) is one of the four original communities of Jewish farmers who combined in 1964 to form
Hod Hasharon
, Israel. It was founded in 1924 and according to a
census
conducted in 1931 by the
British Mandate authorities
had a population of 740.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Before the 20
th
century, the site of Magdiel formed part of the Forest of Sharon, a hallmark of the region's historical landscape. It was an open woodland dominated by Mount Tabor Oak (
Quercus ithaburensis
), which extended from
Kfar Yona
in the north to
Ra'anana
in the south. The local Arab inhabitants traditionally used the area for pasture, firewood, and intermittent cultivation. The intensification of settlement and agriculture in the
coastal plain
during the 19
th
century led to
deforestation
and subsequent environmental degradation known from
Hebrew sources
.
[2]
Magdiel was established as a
moshava
, starting on 4,000
dunams
of land purchased near the Arab village of
Biyar 'Adas
. The initial population included Jewish immigrants from
Russia
,
Poland
and
Lithuania
, later joined by a group from the
Netherlands
.
[3]
In 1964, four villages ? Magdiel, Ramatayim, Hadar, and Ramat Hadar ? merged to become Hod Hasharon.
[4]
The Magdiel Central Synagogue was built between 1930 and 1944, and was inaugurated in an uncompleted stage in 1931. In the run up to independence the synagogue served as a
Haganah
headquarters.
[5]
In 2009 a small
Haganah
weapons cache dating back to the 1948 war was found at the synagogue.
[5]
Restored hut of Magdiel pioneers
The place name is symbolic
Meged El
(i.e., the oil of God)"
[6]
and appears in the
Tanach/Old Testament
. Magdiel was the name of an
Edomite
clan (possibly the name of an eponymous chieftain) mentioned in
Genesis
36:43. Its invocation of
El
may show that that deity was worshipped in Edom, along with
Kaus
and others.
Magdiel is the location of a
Youth Aliyah
boarding school
of that name that took in young survivors of the
Holocaust
.
[7]
Other schools there include a comprehensive secondary school and a technical vocational boarding school of the
ORT
educational network.
-
Magdiel 1927
-
Magdiel 1927
-
Magdiel 1942 1:20,000
-
Magdiel 1945 1:250,000
-
Magdiel soldiers during the
1948 Arab?Israeli War
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Mills, 1932, p.
14
- ^
Marom, Roy (2022-12-01).
"???? ?????? (??-?'???) ?????? ????'?????:? ???????? ???????? ??????? ???????? ??????????-??????? The Oak Forest of the Sharon (al-Ghaba) in the Ottoman Period: New Insights from Historical- Geographical Studies"
.
Muse
.
5
: 90?107.
- ^
Encyclopedia Judaica, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1972, Vol. 8, p. 802, "Hod Ha-Sharon"
- ^
Encyclopedia Judaica, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1972, Vol. 8, p. 802, "Hod Ha-Sharon"
- ^
a
b
Lappin, Yaakov (5 February 2009).
"Hagana weapons cache found in Hod Hasharon synagogue"
.
Jerusalem Post
. Retrieved
29 November
2023
.
- ^
Place names in Israel. A Compendium of Place names in Israel compiled from various sources. Translated from Hebrew, Jerusalem 1962, p.106 (Israel Prime Minister's Office. The Israeli Program for Scientific Translations) (Location of the book:
Ben Zvi Institute Library
, 12 Abarbanel St., Jerusalem;
in the online-catalogue
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"NJ Jewish News | Survivor describes escape route through Christianity and back again"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-26
. Retrieved
2008-08-19
.
32°09′41″N
34°54′10″E
/
32.1613°N 34.9027°E
/
32.1613; 34.9027